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SENEGAL – “No freedom without a price. It is the price of freedom” by Me Khoureychi Ba

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Me Khoureychi Ba

Me Khoureychi Ba, one of the lawyers of the opponent Ousmane Sonko, announces that the people detained in the context of this politico-judicial affair, will be heard by the investigating judge on Monday, March 22, 2021. A series of hearings which may undoubtedly lead to the release of these citizens in this context of relaxation and maintenance of social cohesion. Me Khoureychi Ba amply returns to the accusations leveled against these citizens and promises that the fight for freedom and democracy will be continued regardless of the price to be paid. In this statement published on Saturday, March 20, he returns largely to the arrest and the charges brought against these Senegalese including Guy Marius Sagna, Clédor Sène, Assane, Birame Souleye Diop and many other people.

“On February 22 and 23, 2021, citizens Assane DIOUF, Guy Marius Sagna and Amadou Clédor Sène who were in the sights of the Police had been picked up in their respective homes by the sleuths of the DIC and later sent to prison. They will find in the tunnel of penance many other compatriots who had preceded them there, and many more will join them there later. This March 22, 2021 will be given to the start of the separate interrogations of all these political prisoners in front of the same cabinet of instruction – the first cabinet not to name it – before which they had been indicted, mainly for:

• Regarding Guy Marius Sagna, Assane Diouf and Clédor Sène:
~ organization of an insurrectionary movement (art 87 of the Penal Code)
~ provocation to the commission of crimes and misdemeanors (art 250 CC)
~ criminal association (art 238,239)

• Regarding the group of “19” + X:
~ organization of an insurrectionary movement
~ participation in an insurrectionary movement
~ violence and assault on law enforcement officials in the performance of their duties, damage to State property, criminal conspiracy and arson against all (arts. 85 to 87, 201 et seq., 225, 238, 239, 406 and following of the CP)

• Regarding Mame Dame Lô and Bada Ndiaye picked in Touba:
~ organization of an insurrectionary movement (art 87 CC)
~ incitement to crimes and misdemeanors (art 240, 250 CC)
~ criminal association (art 238, 239 CC)
~ possession and use of Indian hemp (art 139 of the Criminal Code, 109 of the Drug Code)
• Regarding the students Amadou Sow and Mamdou Woury Barry collected at the social campus:
~ participation in an insurrectional movement (art 2, 3, 85, 86, 87 of the CC)
~ attempted arson and destruction of property (art 406, 409 CC)
~ criminal association (art 238,239 of the CC)

• Regarding Birame Soulèye Diop’s group:
The administrator of Pastef and the coordinator of Pastef Dakar Abass Fall placed under arrest warrant, their co-defendants, namely Patricia Mariame Ngandoul, Fatima Mbengue, Bawar Dia and Dahirou Thiam were luckier because they were placed under judicial control, presumptions of :
~ complicity in the dissemination of content contrary to good morals,
~ threats of assault and violence
~ criminal association weighing against them all.
The remarkable identity of these different imprisonments is their arbitrariness

* The case of Clédor Sène – Assane Diouf – Guy Marius Sagna or when the prosecution crashes
The minutes of the three men’s preliminary investigation bear the number 109 / Dic / Bac of 02/24. This report served as the basis for the indictment dated February 26th of the Public Prosecutor drawn up by the deputy Y. NDIAYE. And it is this indictment which asked the judge to open an investigation against the interested parties, to indict them and to place them under a committal warrant (which was done between Friday 02/26 for Guy and the Monday March 1st for Clédor and Assane). However, the report of the species has defects in the genes, which was not long in causing discomfort later in the day. As we know, Amadou Clédor Sène was amnestied twice, in 1991 and in 2005. Article 9 of Law No. 91-40 of July 10, 1991 relating to amnesty provides: ”It is prohibited for any magistrate or official , to recall or allow to subsist in any form whatsoever, in a judicial or police file or in any official document, the convictions, disqualifications, exclusions, incapacities and deprivation of rights attached to the sentence erased by the amnesty… ”
Article 8 of Law No. 2005-05 of February 17, 2005 formally reproduces the same prohibition. However, in the minutes of the Dic, from the very beginning, there is express mention of the criminal past of Mr. Sene on the latter’s own provocative initiative, moreover, and the investigators saw nothing coming.
The Prosecutor as director of the investigation could not decently conceal such a violation of the law, which nullifies the whole edifice. Cancellation does not have retroactive effect. As in civil matters, it is not a question of a resolution of the act, that is to say of its retroactive annihilation, but of a termination: the annulment only has for the future and concerns only the subsequent proceedings or subsequent acts. Its obvious starting point is therefore these preliminary investigation minutes, which are flawed from the start.
It follows from the foregoing that the introductory indictment is irregular and presents a pathology which also infects the report of the first appearance and, by way of contamination, the warrants of committal issued to MM. SÈNE, DIOUF and SAGNA.
This nullity constituting an intolerable violation of the rights of the Defense, the fundamental rights of the human person, the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial allows the referral to the indictment chamber by a reasoned request for a diligent examination of the file within five days of receipt of the file (art 165 and following of the Code of Criminal Procedure). With the direct consequences of the cancellation of the preliminary investigation and of all the subsequent proceedings leading to the lifting of the warrants of committal and the immediate release of the accused, without prejudice to their right to claim fair compensation for the State.

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* The cases of the victims of the roundups in Touba and the UCAD social campus or when the judge is in a prolonged nap.

MM. Amadou SOW and Mamadou Wouri BARRY from UCAD and the managers of Pastef Touba Mame Dame LÔ and Bada NDIAYE experienced an unprecedented ordeal, tossed about for nine days between the cellar of the court and the police station before let the examining magistrate not deign to remember their existence. To comply with the requirements of Article 101 paragraph 5 of the Code of Procedure, the same judge had postponed from 24 hours to the first hour of the first working day the appearances of the Honorable Member of Parliament Ousmane SONKO and of Amadou Clédor SÈNE-Assane DIOUF. So where does it come from that for these young fellow citizens the asymmetry is so blatant if our value system is supposed to be based on the equality of all before the law, whether it protects or sanctions?

In any case, it is fashionable that the saving wind of relaxation can arrive opportunely to provide a bowl of invigorating freshness to our breasts to the lungs attacked by the anti-life fumes of liberticidal gases. It doesn’t matter what the medicine is, as long as it brings comfort. And clear place for the primacy of the rule of law! May strength not remain above all in force but in law! If this is the price we have to pay to live free, then let’s pay it!

No freedom without price. This is the price of freedom ”.

       

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